Mafia 2 review

There’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing here.

Deception through dramatic hype and history of its predecessor is the name of the game here (and a printed map to be found in the special edition.) To those wistfully unexpectant, allow the wool to be removed.

Mafia II is not a sandbox game, contrary to popular belief. Instead, the story is so focussed upon and made compulsory to the player, that after getting carried away with the story, any opportunity of free roaming is taken away.

This makes for a string of sacrifices, which sort of pays off.

The largest disappearance of substance to resign oneself to is Empire Bay itself. A beautifully recreated image of 1940/50’s New York with implied influences from the highways of Detroit and the residential of Chicago. You, as Vito Scarletta, a war veteran fresh out of Italy, start to drive through the streets of Empire Bay with your brother Joe. As he begins to speak about his life, making large sums of money through working for the mafia families, the stereo plays ‘I put a spell on you’ by Jay Hawkins. The streets in the evening are snow covered, the sidewalks are littered with pedestrians walking, talking, smoking, etc and windows illuminate street sides as you pass by. It’s at this point you realise why a literal form of free roaming has been relinquished.

The impactful nature of numerous little programmed touches of the city coming to life is superior, in this instance, compared to crossing your fingers that the AI will manage to pull off moments that bring the city to life when the player is looking. It’s the regulated spontaneity of city goings on that serves well to make you feel comfortable in your role as a citizen within a sprawling metropolis, working to become a ‘made man:’ a figure of notoriety and power amongst the populous.

 This is the crux of the plot. As you return from service, you realise that money is rather hard to come by through legal channels. Add the gruff movie announcer voice to this part: “When all he knows is violence, he takes to the streets and the mafia families of Empire Bay to support him and his family.” It’s a good set up for a great plot of action, shock betrayals and family morals.

The forfeit of a true sandbox format also masks how very little gameplay aspects you can find around the city. Sure it feels alive to look at; but when the maximum interaction you can have with Empire Bay is to buy food and rob a store, you feel like you’ve overstepped the line of what package 2K games offers you.

And this feeling is felt throughout a good amount of game playing. Beneath all of this attention to detail and near-immaculate presentation lies a pretty run-of-the-mill driving mechanic and a tired third person shooter. As soon as the game attempted to do stealth, I was not impressed at all. The cover and move mechanic’s context sensitivity is questionable, pinning you to different walls than what you were expecting. Aiming and shooting is way too simple at long range, and such a pain in the arse in close quarters. The list of quarrels could span the whole of this review; much easier to say the gameplay feels old and, well, just boring.

What we’ve reached here is a crossroad of sorts, and it’s one we’ve been striving towards at a rapid rate. The question being simple: at what point should a game have just been a movie, instead of trying to emulate particular film codes and conventions?

Mafia II has superb attention to detail in all areas of design and presentation. In turn, this creates a skilfully realised version of what you’d expect New York in the 40’s to look and feel like. And, as you play, you maintain an unsupported optimism for the fact that playing, as a member of the mafia makes you feel cool. The cut scenes are terrific, the actors play their parts wonderfully; it’s just the bits where you actually play the game…

Me thinks we’ve ran a little too far with this “interactive movie” idea.

 

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days review

Shock value is a funny thing.

You either have a piece of entertainment that has an unfounded beauty in the way it can physically and psychologically unnerve you. Controversy bleeds through every pore, and you feel a sense of respect for how far films/books/anything with a primary focus to promote procrastination has gone towards tackling dark and disturbing topics.

Then there is what I like to call the “Manhunt 2” side of the spectrum. Imagine a comedian who’s failing on stage trying to pop out some dead baby jokes for some shock laughs and you’ll see what I’m getting at. Focussing entirely on disturbing content to disguise a faltering lack in the actual enjoyment of the game.

What happened to you IO? You got it just right with Hitman; but Kane and Lynch 2 falls into the second of these categories a good majority of the time.

 The narrative tries so hard to pull you in emotively, a much more streamlined (and, therefore, better) story compared to the original. In Dead Men, you’re lost halfway through; whereas you can tell that some proper effort has been put into making an edgy, dark and all round gripping plot. Half the time this works, and at some points better than you’d expect. Watching a sole character on screen cry as they have been left with nothing in life is something you don’t expect to work in a game. But it executes an awkward feeling and really manages to crawl under your skin. It’s one of few beautifully crafted moments of a disturbing psyche that this game’s adult theme pulls on you as if out of nowhere to be swiftly accompanied by the player’s dumbfounded silence.

This is also helped by a distinctive “handheld camera” visual style of play. Harsh lighting creates white balance changes, the camera shakes rather violently as you sprint across the line of fire, and a grainy visual quality makes this an interesting experiment in providing a critical homage to the “youtube” generation, and adding an uncomfortable realism to the whole experience that compliments the atmosphere wonderfully.

It’s just a shame that the gameplay manages to make a good 75% of the game lack the same self terrorisation that makes the small moments that shine really uncomfortably entertaining. The needless complexity has gone; no more heists and stealth sections...thank Christ. What we have now is a very simple run-and-gun affair with cover/flank tactics. The game controls are snappy and easy to grasp, with only a very small amount of glitches. I say this as if broken sections in a game are excusable; but in a game that relies so heavily on shocking the audience, you have to expect it somewhat, and they don’t derive from the experience at all.

This is a blessing in disguise; as the enjoyment value wears off fast. The whole game becomes tiresome as you’re led to doing the same thing over and over again, only with what I would wish to say is different backgrounds; but turns out to be mainly recycled Chinatown backdrops.

And then we have the multiplayer mode: which is broken down into three modes. Fragile Alliance: a Four minute heist challenge, Cops and Robbers: basically a game of Capture the flag with one life, and Undercover cop: definitely the most interesting out of the three. In a heist, one player is selected out of the group to be the undercover cop: the mission being to stop the heist from succeeding. It’s an interesting dynamic that breeds paranoia on a level close to what “The Thing” created. Granted, the modes on offer don’t produce the same gripping multiplayer experience you expect from Halo or Gears; but it’s certainly a good diversion for a couple hours.

Looking back on the journey we’ve gone through, Kane and Lynch 2 is a game that breeds much more style over substance. IO interactive really went out their way to provide an experience of significant shock value, with scenes that have the capability to unnerve many of us who play. But it’s all undermined by what is, essentially, boring game play.

For sure, a whole lot better than the original, and some real new inspirations and interesting innovations; but there’s always next time.